Learn how the E-N crime team does their jobs and read about the quirky characters they encounter and the sometimes bizarre things that can happen at a crime scene that don't make it into their stories.

Brian Chasnoff: No Wimp

Four days after a customer repeatedly stabbed 47-year-old Rodriguez with a butcher knife at a South Side convenience store, the injured clerk is back at work.

“Just a scab and staples,” Rodriguez said this afternoon over the phone, working the counter at a Sunglo in the 2900 block of South Flores.

That’s not how one officer described Rodriguez’s injuries in a police report: “1 critical chest laceration, 1 laceration below ribs, 2 lacerations on back of head, 1 slightly behind right ear.”

Ouch. I think I’d take off at least a week.

Around 5:15 p.m. on Saturday, a 19-year-old ex-stocker at the Sunglo stepped inside the shop and started chatting with Rodriguez. Then he got down to business.

“Give me $20 so I won’t have to rob you,” he said, according to the report.

“I said, ‘What? What did you say?’” Rodriguez recalled.

The customer put some beer on the counter. Rodriguez put it back on the shelf. A shoving match ensued. Then Rodriguez noticed something funny.

“I didn’t know he stabbed me until I saw the knife in my chest,” Rodriguez said. “I took it out and beat his ass.”

That’s accurate. According to the report, Rodriguez was able to pin his attacker to the floor until police arrived. A convenience store clerk for more than two decades, he is clearly the wrong sort of guy to shake down.

“I don’t like to put up with none of that (expletive) from customers,” Rodriguez said.